Fewer than six full days of cricket have been played yet already Australia have no chance of winning the Border-Gavaskar trophyWhen a team implodes the way Australia did at the weekend – with calculated aggression, appalling shot selection, and lemming-like devotion to inept strategy – questions are bound to be asked. Where did it all go wrong? Who’s to blame? What happens next? Continue reading...
Visitors have gone 2-0 down, largely thanks to a preconceived idea of playing sweeps to India’s spinners, come what mayA week ago in Nagpur, Australia’s batting collapse in the first Border-Gavaskar Test came while trailing badly with no realistic route back. It was not ideal but broadly made sense. A week later in Delhi, their collapse was the second surrender of ascendancy in the match. In the second innings they had allowed India’s last three partnerships to reduce Australia’s three-figure lead to a single run. In the third innings, the visitors were 66 ahead on a pitch where 180 might well have been enough, only to lose their last nine wickets for 59.Over the previous year and a half, as...
Having picked injured stars hoping they would recover in the shortest possible time, the tourists are left with few options in DelhiYou go to war with the army you have – so goes a piece of unintended wisdom from Donald Rumsfeld as cycled through Natasha Lyonne on Russian Doll. Like any good motto leaning towards truism, it’s something you can take beyond the literal and apply to the trivial. It’s a phrase that you can mutter as you plough into the passport queue at a seething airport, or glance at the other adult trying to control an eighth birthday party.For our purposes, it can apply to any sporting situation dealing with a lack of resources. Billy Beane could have slotted...
Indian cricket shapes the world game yet they have now gone 11 years without a trophy as big game misjudgments continue to cost themIndian cricket should be dominating world cricket. By bank balance it already is: the last Indian Premier League deal went for more than US$6bn (£5.1bn), the season will soon expand to 94 matches, its timeframe will eat up more of the southern season, pushing earlier into March and perhaps even February. Its franchises have already taken January by buying up new leagues in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, the same organisations are eyeing up the Hundred in England and the Big Bash in Australia should private investment be invited, and as salary caps increase they...
High security for England’s tour is costing the PCB which is the only board denied huge TV revenues generated by facing IndiaYou may have noticed that there are side-effects to watching England’s series against Pakistan. Some are obvious, like a nascent infatuation with Harry Brook’s inside-out drives. Others, though, are less so. You may experience a nagging urge to switch to Sensodyne toothpaste “because life’s too short for sensitive teeth”, drink Tapal Tea, “it makes teatime terrific”, or start using Osaka Tubular Deep Cycle Premium Batteries. You may even find yourself overcome with inexplicable curiosity about the latest Dawlance Power Wash Challenge, in which members of the public compete on rowing machines to win a washing machine.It’s easy to snigger...